7 February, 2009

Obama’s Speed Record

After Obama’s miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell — and that this president told better than anyone.

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

This monstrosity of a bill, and the assumptions underlying it (e.g., “Politicians are wiser than non-politicians,” “Citizens don’t own what they earn,” etc.), are making me consider joining the Republican Party. Not because the Republicans are great, but because they’ve shown they can be decent. The Democrats are just ravening parasites.

This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don’t know what to say. I mean it’s wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don’t think will work, so I don’t think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don’t think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn’t really geared toward incentives. It’s not really geared to lowering tax rates; it’s more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it’s garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn’t really matter that much.

His Majesty’s courtiers are beginning to notice that the Emperor doesn’t seem as clothed as he was a couple of weeks ago, but figure that “an array of villains” cunningly caused the coronation robes to dissolve.